| August 22, 2007 | Wednesday | Sha’aban 8, 1428 |
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Symbols of Ghaznavi Empire
Information ministry’s problems
Traffic jams
PTCL services
Games historians play
Fire in PNSC building
Traffic congestion
Death of a student
Bullet train
Readers are requested to restrict their comments to a maximum of 400 words. We reserve the right to edit letters for reasons of clarity and space. Letters, including those by e-mail, should carry the complete postal address of the sender. The views expressed in these columns do not necessarily reflect the views of the newspaper.—Editor
EVERY other day we come across allies of political parties defending their status, legitimacy and support. For a change, it was good to read Mr Kardar’s realistic review of political party’s mandates and how their stakes are envisioned in the present scenario. Whereas he confesses Mr Bhutto’s exemplary political manifesto, he also acknowledges that the fundamentals of the PPP manifesto were ignored when the time came for implementation.
Mr Shahid Kardar opines on Benazir Bhutto, ‘Having sold her soul’, and hence annoys many enlightened minds now allied with the PPP (Aug 5). Honestly, he does not deserve criticism here. There are two reasons for that. First is that all political allies and members and all citizens have a right to express their opinion.
Freedom of expression doesn’t only justify more opportunities for those seeking more power or on the sidelines. Freedom of expression provides everyone an equal opportunity to express their views on political, religious and social issues. While the state leadership and military have to bear but only realistically being called dictators and in much severe language by the opposition.
Individuals with their independent vision may also reflect on Ms Bhutto ‘having sold her soul’ or otherwise. Secondly, though it is definitely not to defend the PML-N/Q or the military, but ‘having sold her soul’ is not interpreted ‘literary’ as it has been done by some. It rather has a more sombre meaning, symbolic with a much deeper cause for delving into understanding.
For example, when an individual claims to pursue and cherish certain ideas, those visions coming with strong feelings become a part of his or her soul whether in personal or worldly pursuit. But deviating from those visions, ideas, and strong feelings, forsaking the strength or certain judgment (whether to come to terms with the piracy of times or while leaving behind a passion which gives one strength) is expressed as ‘having sold his/her soul’.
This is a symbolic statement, (not a literal expression) words of wisdom, fortifying roles of human visions and not quoted or interpreted superficially. Hence what evokes Mr Kardar to use these expressions, while he laments the graying of the PPP’s original manifesto needs to be analysed and interpreted more thoughtfully.
Moreover, while not supporting or rejecting any opinion, there are still a vast majority of people, not political allies or members, who would like to question: What interest does Ms Bhutto have in Pakistan? She had been living with a western lifestyle until 1988, later changing into the local garb for political gains, hailing from a special interest group and elite family, she is not a self-made individual, who has not known what is poverty and social deprivation, sitting under the sun or cuing to catch a bus.
Not being able to relate to a large majority of people, she holds on to a welfare-based manifesto of her father that was left way behind while he was grappling for power. She has much bonding to make with the people besides her father’s neglected slogan, walk out of the luxuries and into the homes of the people she declares to represent, reach out with a clear and humble vision, to the ignorant in the slums as well as the educated who wonder and sit back at home, while she marches towards her quest for power.
AYESHA AFTAB
Donor Relations Focal Point
World Health Organization
Islamabad
SAYED Salahuddin’s report, ‘Last symbols of Ghaznavi Empire under threat’ (Aug 17), does not bode well for those who take great care for the preservation of cultural heritage. In Afghanistan already most well-known sculptures of antiquity called ‘great Buddha’ of Bâmiân, with countless grottoes nearby that were once decorated with wall paintings in the Greco-Buddhistic and Kushâno-Sassanian (Third Century AD Indo-Persian) styles were destroyed during 2001 by Taliban forces using artillery and explosives, despite protest by entire world, more specifically by Buddhist communities. (Surprisingly even Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi, who is known as an iconoclast, did not destroy these statues.) Now the ‘Towers of Victory’, a symbol of the Gaznavi period, which sustain scourge of Ghourids and Ghanghiz Khan et al and faced upheaval of perpetual warfare are under threat of annihilation but this time it is the negligence of present-day establishment.
By the way, recently it is discovered that these minarets were wrongly attributed, on the strength of ancient travellers, as ‘Victory towers’ as these were built in the days of Ghaznavid sovereigns of the last period, Masud III (1144) and Bahram Shah (1152) and not in the days of Sultan Masud who succeeded Mahmud Ghaznavi.
The Ghaznavids were the Turkish dynasty that ruled Afghanistan and neighbouring Punjab for more than 200 years. It was founded by Alptigin (died 963), a Samanid slave, who conquered the strategic mountain town of Ghaznî in 962 for his master Samanid Amir of Bokhara. After his death, Subuktigin, his slave who was governor of eastern Afghani-stan, become Sultan of Ghazni.
The greatest of the Ghaznavids was his son Sultan Mahmud of Ghaznî (971-1030), who led numerous raids into Punjab and other Indian cities, taking with him enormous wealth that he used to convert Ghaznî into one of the great centres of Islamic culture.
Before his death, Mahmud annexed Punjab to his kingdom. His kingdom on the east included Punjab and parts of Sindh, northern Balochistan, Afghani-stan up to Oxus in the north and eastern part of Persia but was not extended up to Tigris.
Afghanistan is extremely rich in architectural remnants of all ages, including Greek monasteries and Buddhist stupas, arches, monuments, mosques, etc. Among the most famous sites are the great mosques of Herât and Mazâr-i-Sharîf; the minaret of a mosque at Jâm in the west central highlands; the 1,000-year-old Great Arch of Qal‘eh-ye Bost; the Chel Zina (Forty Steps) and rock inscriptions made by Mughal emperor Babur in Kandahâr; Emperor Babur’s tomb and the great Bala Hissar Fort in Kâbul and the ‘Towers of Victory’ in Ghaznî; now under extinction.
The ‘victory towers’ are not only symbol of Turkic-Afghan civilisation of the times of yore but they represent an important period of history. Before these minarets are perished, attention is invited of te World Heritage Programme of Unesco to pay special attention to the conservation of these monuments of great historical significance.
ALTAMASH M. KURESHI
Karachi
Our information ministry is the most misinformed ministry, not knowing how to do even the most elementary things that it is supposed to do.
Watch any news conference arranged by it. You will see a jungle of microphones in front of the speaker.
These are not to record anything but just to put the logos in front of the camera so that the channels may give the impression that their reporters were there.
Only very few channels have audio recorders in place; others get free publicity due to the ignorance of the ministry.
The Ministry has yet to learn that it should place just two mikes of its own, without any logo on it. The mikes should lead to a hub where any channel may plug in its audio recorder, away from cameras. That will be equality for all.
Every news conference has a crowd of unruly reporters, each clamouring to get attention, all creating a cacophony by speaking at the same time. Anybody with an accreditation card from the ministry can get in. Then it is free for all.
The ministry should allow a total of just 20 or so reporters for all media, paper or electronic, national or local. To avoid favouritism, it should ask the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists to select reporters, based on criteria agreed to by all. Reporters may be added or deleted, keeping in view the position of their organisations.
The information ministry has failed to make PTV the first choice for ministers and officials.
Whenever they have something important to say, they rush to private channels. As a national institution, PTV must have top priority for everybody in government.
The only function of the information ministry is to get maximum coverage for the government. The ministry has yet to realise this. It must duplicate DVD recordings of every official function immediately after it is over and supply a copy to every reporter covering the function.
He will make maximum use of it and then send the copy to his organisation for its archives. His organisation will save the cost of sending a cameraman of its own for coverage. Moreover, the copy will be used whenever an occasion arises.
Running the information ministry, like newspapers and television channels, is a business of ideas and creativity. People with 9-to-5 routine cannot deliver what the government and the people expect.
MUHAMMAD ABDAL HAMEED
Lahore
APROPOS of the letter, ‘Traffic jams’ (Aug 19), I would like to add that encroachments are also a big cause of traffic jams. Almost whole Karachi suffers because of encroachments. Increasing number of denting, painting and mechanic shops and car showrooms are a big cause of traffic jam around the Tibet Centre, Plaza Market, New M.A. Jinnah Road, Jamshed Road and other localities.
The odd parking is also a big cause of traffic jam. People don’t know how the car should be parked and no law enforcer is there to control it. Only one single row is used to run at New M.A.Jinnah Road for traffic and the remaining three rows are engaged by car dealers or visitors to car showrooms who park their car in the second or the third row. The same is practised in many other localities in the city.
Moreover, there is no punishment for violation of traffic signal, odd parking, wrong side entry, wrong side overtaking and illegal bus stops, etc. No matter how many flyovers, underpasses and signal-free corridors we build, we cannot get rid of traffic problems if laws continue to be violated.
AHMED IMRAN KHALID
Karachi
THE PTCL had a new ad on the front page of Dawn on Aug 17 about the ‘New PTCL’ and all the changes they want to bring about or have introduced. Perhaps someone from the billing or the administrative section would like to explain the new ‘Broadband line rent’ in our telephone bills for July.
Our both phones (4910459 and 4926273) have been more ‘dead’ than alive during this period; again no dial tone for the last 12 days at least, though in all fairness one of them did ring once last night (Aug 16).
And we most certainly have no broadband connection for which a line rent has been charged. In fact, when we tried to get a DSL connection, the lines were/are so bad that they failed and could not operate the system. I wait with bated breath for the phones to start working again and for someone to explain the new charge.
AGGRIEVED CITIZEN
Karachi
MR Irfan Hussain’s column of Aug 4 fires the mind: “What if’ there was no Partition. Leaving aside the tremendous gains which were listed in the article, there was definitely a loss to light and classical music and cinema. The melodies that were created when talent from present day Pakistan and the rest of the subcontinent had joined hands can never be created again. Names like Baray Ghulam Ali Khan, Muhammad Rafee, Khursheed, Suraya and others come to mind. Born within 50 miles of Lahore they had to stay back in Mumbai to achieve the heights that they reached.
Noor Jehan, the greatest of them all, came back to Pakistan and sang some great songs but her voice was meant for more. Imagine what could have come about had music directors like Naushad continued to have access to her voice. How many unforgettables like "awaz de kahan hai" been ours.
I have been reading Ayaz Amir’s column every Friday, ‘religiously’. It is never complete without mention of General Musharraf. Perhaps the one and only Friday column, when the general was not mentioned, was when he wrote about Saigal and Muhammad Rafee and the Old Songs broadcast from the erstwhile Radio Ceylon (now Sri Lanka Broadcasting Service). This is what music can do. It makes you forget all grudges and regrets.
Ayaz Amir while eulogising these greats did mention perhaps unwittingly that they belonged to Punjab: “the land of the five rivers”, he said. This, of course, is true but music and art transcend all borders: provincial and ethnic. What would Saigal be without the tutelage of Punkaj Malik, a Bengali, or Rafee without the start he got in the film ‘Jugnu’ with his duet in the company of a reluctant Noor Jehan:
“Yahan badla wafa ka bey wafai ke sewa kia hai". The film was produced and directed by Mehboob, the music director was Naushad: one from the deep south and the other from the north of the subcontinent.
C. H. Atma from Sindh; Dilip Kumar, Prithiviraj Kapoor and his clan from the Frontier; countless stars like Khursheed, Suraiya, Saigal, Malka Pukhraj from Punjab; Punkaj Malik, Kishor Kumar, Gita Dutt from Bengal; Naushad, Talat Mehmood, Akhtari Bai, Kajjan Begum from UP; Lata Mangeskar, Usha Mangeskar, Amir Bai, from the South; Mukesh, Kanan Devi, Kamla Jharia, Raj Kumari, Rasoolan Bai and others from God knows where. There isn’t space enough to name all these greats of music and cinema from every corner of the subcontinent They belonged to all of us and were from everywhere.
O. P. Nayyer, one of the greatest music directors of his time, said that his music would be nothing without Muhammad Rafee: both from Lahore but divided by religion. They reached their peak in far-off Bombay, more than a thousand miles away; what irony! How do we separate the jugalbandi of Bismillah Khan with Bhageshwari, Amjad Ali Khan with T.N. Krishnan or the innovations of Ravi Shankar with Allah Rakkha on the tabla.
“What if” all these greats continued to put their talents together, what wonders could have been achieved. Almost all of them or now gone. The creations of that melting pot of diverse cultures, sufi lores, the bhangra and the mahie; the rhythmic beats of the Frontier, Purab and Bengal; classical ragas, the thumri and the dadra, the dholak and the tabla, can never be put together again in the same way. I am perplexed as to how to apply the ‘Two-nation’ theory to these melodies that have elated millions from the decade of the late 1930s to perhaps the 1960s, when they started dying out slowly as partition began to assert itself.
This ‘What if’ game I sometimes play with a lump in my throat, even though I am no historian.
CAPTAIN S. AFAQ RIZVI
Karachi
THE suspension of the Chief Justice of Pakistan and the mayhem that followed, May 12 riots and the near massacre of citizens of Karachi, the Lal Masjid ordeal, the suicide bombings in the north are just a few tragedies to name that have scarred our souls and brought us to our knees.
Be it big or small, a tragedy is a tragedy. I add another to the list, as I stood on the docks of the Karachi Boat Club, witnessing yet another one of the saddest moments this year, five days post-Pakistan’s 60th birthday, I still saw a Pakistani flag flying high, as the PNSC building burnt behind.
SANA ZUBAIRI
Karachi
I WANT to thank the Pakistan navy helicopter’s squad for rescuing the engineer from the 15-storeyed Pakistan National Shipping Corporation building on Sunday after the building got fire. Hats-off to the rescuing team.
ABDUS SAMAD HUSSAIN
Karachi
I AM reasonably sure that we already have rules that do not permit encroachments onto sidewalks or pavements and roads. Nevertheless, you just have to take one look at M. A. Jinnah Road extension or the Shaheed-i-Millat Road end of Khalid bin Waleed Road or worse still experience the regular traffic jams at these sites to appreciate what is the contributory cause.
Car showroom wallahs and dealers park cars on the pavements as well two or even three deep on the road so that the three (or even four-lane highway in places] is reduced to an effective 1 or 1.5 half lanes, further aggravated by pushcart or pedestrian users beyond the parked vehicles.
Buses stop and start irrespective of bus stops to add to the fun and I am surprised that more pedestrians are not killed or injured every day. Everywhere else in big cities either car sale businesses are generally located well outside the crowded main city areas or can park only just as many cars as can fit inside their showrooms.
Could we possible start implementing our road encroachment laws and/or offer people incentives like tax breaks to move to specified locations with big parking lot yards? It would indeed save many lives not to mention blood pressure accidents. Mr Mustafa Kamal and Ms Jaleel please take action.
CONCERNED CITIZEN
Karachi
IT is with great sadness that I read the other day about the death of a student leader due to severe beating by his peers in the premises of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in Karachi. The Sindh Medical college and the JPGMC are institutions of learning, and the last thing aspiring or graduate physicians need to do is to get involved in politics of death and destruction.
The main responsibility lies with the parents, who need to raise their children well, and incalculate in them civilised behaviour.
Physicians are meant to be healers, not harbingers of death and destruction. I would like to request the government to clear the hostels of criminal elements, expel students who display such behaviour and enforce a strict ban on political activities in medical institutions.
These things have been said before by others. It is time we woke up and did something about it. Irrespective of ethnic differences, we are human’s first, and human dignity is of paramount importance.
ALTAF A. IBRAHIM
Dearborn, MI
The largest flow of traffic in Pakistan of both passengers and goods is between Karachi and Lahore. Our railway ministry wants to build bullet train between Lahore and Rawalpindi. For this sector, we have already in service motorway (M-2); two-way carpeted G.T. Road and the railway track.
Why don’t we build a bullet train between Karachi and Lahore where there is dire need as both road and rail services are in bad shape?
INAYAT SHEIKH
Karachi
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